Teaching Council welcomes the implementation of professional standard for teachers

The Teaching Council is welcoming the implementation of professional standard for teachers. Under the standard, a person employed permanently as a teacher who is not registered cannot be paid. More than 87,000 teachers are now on the Teaching Council register with only a handful yet to apply for registration. Of this number 3541 are teachers who registered with a Co. Kerry residential address. Tomás Rourke, CEO of the Teaching Council, says today is a historic day for the teaching profession in Ireland: [audio_player src=”http://media.radiokerry.ie/mediamanager/embed/audio/17765/medium/”] The President of the National Parents’ Council Post Primary says new powers being introduced to deal with underperforming teachers will not open the floodgates on complaints against teachers. Up until now, a teacher had to be deemed ‘unfit to teach’ before sanctions could be imposed, but the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, is set to strengthen the regulatory body’s powers. They will range from advice, admonishment or censure to suspension or removal from the Teaching Council’s register. Castlemaine native Don Meyers is President of National Parents’ Council Post-Primary: [audio_player src=”http://media.radiokerry.ie/mediamanager/embed/audio/17761/medium/”]